We arrived into Helsinki early in the morning (of course when the sun comes up at like 330 in the morning, it's always early).

We could have walked the water front from the port to the town, but decided to take a taxi to the market area. Very nice market, food stands, fruit vendors and souvenir vendors. From there we walked up to to the cathedral which was build in the Russian Orthodox design. We then explored the area, walking along the water front and back to the market area. From here we headed up to the Helsinki Cathedral, which is a Lutheran Church.

From there we walked down to the main street area with it's large garden type walk all through the middle. We stopped for a cool drink and then headed towards Stockmann's to do a little shopping

once the shopping done, we headed back to the Helsinki Cathedral to await our friend, Martti Khoui, who was to pick us up and take us to their home for a relaxing lunch and visit.

Martti arrived shortly after and we set off. The Khoui's are from Finland but lived in Barbados for about 5 years. Their oldest daughter Emma and our oldest daughter Madeline, went to school together for all those years. They moved back after that. We had a lovely lunch and a very nice visit with out friends and then headed back to the ship.